TUTORIAL: BLOCK GRAPHICS FROM GUESTBOOK

(And keep your background!)

Yes, Multiply has unveild a checkbox to stop HTML in it's tracks! No more flashing or scrolling text, no more obnoxious glittery graphics, and no more distored pages! To read more about that, click here.

Well, anyway:

First, click "Customize My Site."

Then, choose "Edit" in the guestbook module.

Finally, put a check in "Don't allow HTML in comments" and save.

Questions can be referred to Y!360 Refugees help center or Multiply User Support.

-Ze Baron

NEW FEATURES ALL AROUND

Yes, folks, they've done it again. Multiply has implemented more features. The beauty of it, however, is that they're listening to their users. They hear folks complaining and suggesting (but mostly complaining!) at MUDS about the system, the upgrades, things that could be better, and on and on. They've taken some ideas and run with them.

• Online Buddies now carry more signifcance. Online buddies are now more of a seperate class, while still remaining on your contacts list. Items can be set to "Contacts" and "Contacts Except Online Buddies," along with the regular choices. Read more about that at the official blog's Feb. 5th post.
• Photo slide shows, like those on other sites, especially photo-hosting sites, are now available. You can even embed a slideshow using your Multiply photo albums! No need for Photobucket now.
• A new filter was recently installed called "I've Replied" which only displays threads to which you've replied. They added another option to custom filters, "only posts I've replied to." I'm not sure what significance these options have, seeing as the only posts you've replied to are old ones, but nonetheless, they're there.
• BLOCK HTML IN GUESTBOOKS!!! Yes, yes, yes!! The option you've all been waiting for, the ability to shut off HTML in your guestbook. That means no more annoying blink codes, no more annoying marquee codes, and most of all, no more page-distorting graphics! Of course, for those of you who like sharing graphics, you don't have to shut off the HTML. To learn how to work this feature, click here for an in-house tutorial.
• Social networking features have been expanded, making it easier to spread your content to your other pages on other social-networking sites.
  
• Photo album navigation is now customizable. The colors are the ones used in your theme.
• "Comment Deleted..." at the request of the author, among other such notes, have been removed from your guestbook when a comment is deleted by you or the author.
• Contact imports have been expanded.

Well, that proves once and again that Multiply just rocks. Read the original post on the official blog by clicking here.

-Ze Baron

ALEXA RANKINGS

I've always found sites' Alexa rankings to be interesting.

You see, Alexa ranks sites according to traffic and views. Here's Multiply's:

It's a bit dramatic how it tapers off at the end, but listen to me here: Let's look at trends.

Right in mid-October, the site makes a significant jump in hits, right around the time 360 users started coming over and settling in. Obviously this influx of users has had a profound effect on Multiply, as their hits haven't dipped below their pre-October rankings... until now.

Look again, though: Early January was a hump, then a decline, then a huge jump in mid-January. I can't think, now, of anything that can be attributed to that large increase. But you'll also notice that Multiply has taken a huge downturn in late January. Looking at the monthly charts, traffic really started to tank right after January 28th, and even more so from the 29th to February 1st, the latest they have rankings for. I firmly believe I know why that is.

A undersea broadband cable that transmits untold amouts of information from the Middle East and Asia was cut, causing internet outages from Isreal to Bangladesh, stretching nearly a continent long.The internet is apparently still choppy in some areas, slow in others, and nonexistant in yet others. A sizable chunk of Multiply's users are of South Asian nationality, so this could be a large contributing portion of regular users missing.

Alexa even lists the amount of users from each country. At the top, the Phillipines, with 30.9% of traffic. Indonesia and Thailand fall in second and third with 14.2% and 7.7%. The United States, fourth, at 7.2%. Rounding out the top five is Singapore with 6.2%. Going further, there's Malaysia, Viet Nam, Hong Kong, China, and the United Arab Emirates, all who depend, at whole or in part, on this cable.

I imagine that the Phillipines spot at #1 might have been shaped by this deal.

Again, though, this is all speculation.

(Forgive me, but how 'bout them Giants? Hoo-rah, take that, Patriots!)

-Ze Baron

REMOVING Y! MASH PAGE

Well, there's been concern since we started here on how to clear out various profiles at Yahoo!. I haven't had a comment on my Mash page in over 8 months, so I think it was time to purge it. I went through first and remove all relative information, and then threw a Multiply badge on there for good measure.

After looking around, though, I came across a page that should help us all out. Click here to access it. Once there, you can change permissions for most anything (notably who can see your page.) I changed everything to "Only You."

A user pointed out on this thread that you can contact Yahoo! via this link and have them remove your page. Be sure to include a URL to your page.

If you're unsure how to access your page -- I know I was, after eight months -- just sign into your Yahoo! account and type "mash.multiply.com" into the address bar. Or, just click either of the two links to Yahoo! in this blog while signed in.

-Ze Baron

SUPER BOWL PARTY

Disgusted by the Patriots and not watching the Bowl?

Wanna have a party, here, now on the favorite American holiday?

-Ze Baron

DEATH PENALTY APPLIED

I'm going to do a case example of someone, who, in my mind deserves the death penalty (assuming his confession is true and there is proof beyond all doubt.)

Father Of Murdered Baby In Houston Confesses

The father of a 3-month-old boy who was found murdered near the Galveston, Texas, seawall turned himself into police in Pennsylvania, saying he intentionally murdered the boy by repeatedly stomping on him.

Travis Mullis told Pennsylvania investigators he repeatedly stomped on the 3-month-old until he felt his skull collapse, according to an official Galveston Police Department document.

Mullis turned himself in Friday afternoon, where his bond was set at $1 million, police said at a Friday night news conference.

(Emphasis mine.)

Do you see? He confessed, telling PA investigators that he stomped on the skull until he felt it collapse! That's unspeakable. It's just...

I saw this on my friend Mav's blog. He first blogged about it when they found the baby. He did a follow up when they caught this man. I just could not believe what the man said about stomping until he felt the skull collapse... that is just too much for me. I can't even imagine doing that to a dog or a cat...

Things like this just make me wonder... where, if not in a case like this, is the death penalty appropriate?

It's all fine and dandy when we're talking hypothetically about abortion and the death penalty. Now, when he committed what could be called his own version of abortion, does he deserve the death penalty?

This man obviously has no conscience. Things like these justify my cynicism.

-Ze Baron

GIVE ME SOME LOVE

Some songs really are just neat. I have this great song by James Blunt, called "Give Me Some Love." I uploaded the song to my album, now that they can't be downloaded... well, yeah. Here's the album: James Blunt. For those of you with little ears, and I don't mean the undersized audio receptors, I believe he says, "sh*t" a few times, but the song is not a "bad" song, as you might peg it.

Anyway, give it a listen.

But the real purpose of this blog:

What good songs have you come across lately?

-Ze Baron